a Halloween scare

On Halloween night it was traditional that there would be a mascarade party in the Avonton Hall. For one of these parties in the early thirties Elizabeth Robertson, Lois' good friend, invited Lois to come to stay with the Robertsons and to attend the Avonton Party. After supper on that Halloween night, the two friends went upstairs to Elizabeth's bedroom on the second floor to put on their costumes and to prepare for the party. As they were dressing one of them looked up and started screaming for there, outside the bedroom window danging from a rope was a dead man, a cord tightly knotted around his neck, swagging limply in the wind. As could be expected the girls ran out of the room and generally reacted in exactly the way that Jean, Elizabeth's younger sister had hoped they would. For it was Jean who had created the hanged man using her father's clothes and a rope. It was Jean who had climbed up above her sister's bedroom and lowered the mannequin down outside bedroom window. While Lois can no longer remember what she wore to the masquerade party or who was at it, the image of the hanged man swaying outside the bedroom window remains as vividly clear as the night she saw him.

Thanksgiving 1938

Today is Thanksgiving Sunday 2009. Jessica and Carlos and I went to St. Marys to have a Thanksgiving dinner with Lois and her sister Roberta. Yesterday, October 12 is the 71st birthday of Lois's oldest child, Betty Lou. Lois remembers that Thanksgiving Day 71 years ago was a bright cool, day. As a teacher Gordon had Thanksgiving day off. In the afternoon they went for a walk over to the "other 50 acres" which was north across the road from the McEwan main farm. Lois remembers that they walked a long distance through the 50 acres and across to the side road leading to Sebringville. On the following day after coming home from school Gordon changed his clothes and went to the barn to help his father Jack. When he got to the barn his father said: "Go back to the house. I think Lois needs you more that we do." By the time he had returned to the house Lois said that she thought she needed to go to the hospital. They arrived at Stratford Hospital at about 6 p.m. and the baby was born about 8 p.m. the much loved first child of Gordon and Lois, the first grandchild of Jack and Beanie McEwan and the second grandchild of Bob Hearn. Here is a picture of the baby likely taken in front of the farm house on a pleasant spring day in 1939.

How To Get To The Dance?

It was Saturday night. Lois was at Helen Laing's place. They were teenagers. There was a dance at Lakeside. Neither of them had dates, but they wanted desperately to attend the dance. Helen's younger sister Marie was going with her date Ken Rea. Lois and Helen came up with a plan and Marie agreed: When Ken Rae knocked on the front door to collect Marie, Lois and Helen were to run out the back door, get into the back seat of the car and crouch down so that Ken could not see them. If they could get to the dance, maybe they could get a ride home, and Ken would never know. The plan worked perfectly, Ken knocked at the door, Lois and Helen scurried around from the back of the house, crouched down in the back seat, determined to stay quiet, but the question was: How long would that last? The                 plan progressed, Rae and Marie came out of the house, got into the car, Ken turned on the motor, pulled out of the drive and headed toward Lakeside. Helen and Lois crouching in the back hid their mirth, while the conversation of Ken and Marie, young people on a date, continued in the front seat without Ken realizing that every word was being overheard. Then, unexpectedly, Ken turned east when he should have turned south if he was going to Lakeside. Marie asked "why?" and when he replied that the had agreed to pick up another couple, the Helen and Lois knew that the game was up, and all that bottled up tension burst out in what Lois describes as "snorting" hilarity. The girls offered to be taken home but Ken, a generous man, said that all six of them could all go together to the dance. Lois remembers that they got to the dance, had a great time, and even managed to find a ride home so that Ken and Marie could be on their own. (The two pictures - one of rather poor quality -- which accompany this blog are taken from the collection of the St. Marys Museum and represent what the pavilion may have looked like on the evening in which Lois and Helen hitched their ride with Ken Rae.)

Excursions to Grand Bend in the 1930's

The beach at Grand Bend has been a destination filled with fun and excitement for generations. Here are two pictures taken of Lois and her friends on the beach in about 1930. Of course, no one among Lois' group owned a bathing suit. When they went to the beach, they -- like lots of other young people -- needed to rent a bathing suit. Lois remembers that suits came in two qualities: cotton and wool. While the cotton suits were cheaper, they were also far more revealing, and Lois always hoped that the guy she was with would give her enough money for a wool suit. (Lois remembers that it was seldon that she would have any money of her own.) At the bath house you would pay your $1 and for that, you would be rented a bathing suit and access to a private change room where you would hang your clothes. The bathing suit would very likely still be wet from the person before you. However, for the rental period you would be free to paddle in the lake, take pictures, or play in the sand. In the top picture are Kelly, Lois' younger brother and his girfriend Eileen Dunsmore (on the left), Lois, and Gerald Riley whose family was a good friend of the Hearn Family. The second picture includes Lois' younger brother Ivan. He is the guy in the wool suit, the tie, and the hat. Surely, the suit was desperately uncomfortable on a hot day on the beach. Either, Ivan didn't have the money for a bathing suit, or quite possibly, he felt he looked more attractive in his formal suit than he would in a bathing suit.

Gordon's sense of humour

Jokes and fun were an important ingredient in the lives of Gordon and Lois. "We had a lot of good laughs" is an expression Lois uses frequently in describing an evening of playing cards or other forms of socializing. Roberta Dundas recently related a joke which she and her friend Gladys Campbell, as little girls played on their teacher Mr. McEwan. One lunch hour Roberta and Gladys decided to exchange clothes and to become the other person for the afternoon. When the bell rang to end the lunch hour, the two girls went and sat in each other's desk. The teacher recognized the joke, and for the whole afternoon he called each girl by the other's name. Of course they loved the idea that they were fooling their teacher. I am sure that there were lots of exchanges of giggles between the girls that afternoon, and I am sure that the teacher also enjoyed the joke. On occasion, however, Gordon's sense of humour could get him in trouble. The annual Christmas concert at the school was an important event for the whole community with not only the parents of the children, but also the extended family and the neighbours attending. At one of these concerts at SS# 9 Downie, Gordon told a joke involving two of the school trustees: Freddy Fulcher and Joe Killoran. The joke went like this: One day Freddy met Joe on the road. Freddy stopped Joe and said "look at your nose and tell me what time it is". To which Joe replied "Look at your own, mine ain't running!". Thinking this was a wonderful joke, Earl Richardson a neighbour of both Freddy and Joe, laughed loudly and long. Unfortunately, Fred Fulcher did not see the humour in the story. Thinking that Earl and the teacher had planned this together to make him look foolish, Freddy was deeply insulted. By the next day, the teacher as well as the whole community had heard how Freddy reacted to the joke. There was nothing to be done but Gordon had to pay a visit to the Fulcher home and to humbly apologize and assure Freddy that the joke had not been pre-arranged with Earl Richardson. Here is a picture of #9 school, the site of the infamous "running nose" joke.

May 24th Holiday 1935

This weekend is the 24th of May holiday. Traditionally, this weekend marks the beginning of summer. When I was growing up in the 50's it stood for firecrackers, soapbox derbies, the first swim in the quarry and, if you were very unlucky, the weekend to plant potatoes. Today was rainy and cold and that type of weather reminded Lois of a Victoria Day picnic which she went on in 1935 when she was dating Gordon. They were both 20 years old. Lois was at home raising Vic and Roberta and running the home for her father and her four other brothers. Gordon was in his first year of teaching at Black Creek School near Sebringville. To mark the long weekend, they decided to go on a picnic with Gordon's friend Reg Hammond and his date Isobel Waldie. This must have been planned well in advance because -- and this is the part that was important to Lois -- her Aunt Minnie, who was an excellent seamstress and was a strong supporter after the death of Lois' mother --- made Lois a new dress. It was yellow with a yoke collar. A large decorative button was fastened to the left side near the collar. Unfortunately, when the day of the picnic arrived, the day was exceptionally cold, but the two couples decided to go on their picnic, in spite of the weather. They drove around and finally settled on having their picnic near Trafalgar bridge, a heavily braced steel bridge, a sight which was once common in rural Ontario. Trafalgar Bridge which was build in 1905 sits on the boundary of Banshard, Fullarton and Downie Townships and spans the Thames River as it heads toward St. Marys. Lois never said whether she was sensible and wore a coat or whether she was foolish and decided to forgo the coat so that the yellow dress would be shown to its best advantage. At the top is a picture of Trafalgar Bridge as it may have looked on the day of Gordon and Lois' picnic, and here also is a picture of the same bridge as it appears on a pleasant day in June 2009.

The Short Course of 1933-34

Lois' mother died in the spring of 1933 leaving husband Bob and seven children, ranging in age from Roberta at 1 and Vic at 3 through Don, Ivan, and Kelly, to Lois at 18 and Lyle at 21. While the shock and sadness undoubtedly hit everyone hard, I think it would be fair to say that-- of the children -- it was Lois who was forced to make the biggest adjustments and the biggest sacrifices. After the initial period of mourning, the boys returned to their regular routines. But for Lois, the world had completely changed. In place of being her mother's helper, she now was the one in charge of all the cooking, cleaning, and washing needed by a large family. The new role involved an awful lot of work, but it also involved sacrifices. One of the early sacrifices that needed to be made, was to forgo the chance to attend the Short Course offered by the Perth County Department of Agriculture in St. Pauls during the winter of 1933. The course ran 5 days a week for three months from December 1933 to February 1934. The men studied theory of agriculture and travelled to area farms to judge livestock. The women, who met in the upstairs room over Hauke's store (which was reputed to be a very cold place in February) studied nursing, interior decorating and home economics. While the information given was doubtlessly useful, I suspect that the reason why so many young people attended was because the course offered a chance to socialize with other people in surroundings something like a "college experience." At the top, is a picture of the participants. You will notice that Lois is missing (at home looking after children) and so is Gordon (living in Stratford with his Uncle Charlie and Aunt Alice Ballantyne while he attends Teacher's College.)

Peat as a Fuel Source in the 1930s

Peat was the fuel burned in the kitchen of Jack and Beanie McEwan. Each Fall Jack would drive out to the Ellice Swamp where he would purchase a load of peat. Peat came as round cylinder-shaped tubes of densely compacted, dry vegetation. Jack would store the peat in the cellar where it could be brought up in a kettle to be burned in the kitchen stove throughout the winter. Of course they had no furnace. The pipe from the peat stove which went up through the ceiling to the second floor provided the only source of heat for the remainder of the house: small wonder that everyone gathered in the kitchen on cold winter evenings. Lois remembers that the peat burned very hot and that resulted in problems for the grates in the stove. Lois' second recollection was that peat was a dusty and dirty fuel. According to a recent article in the Stratford Beacon Herald, ( 7 Jan 09) William Leasa was producing peat in the Ellice swamp outside of Gads Hill on a commercial basis as early as 1835. "Mr Leasa invented a machine which greatly facilitated the production of peat as a commercial fuel. The harvested peat was put into a mixer which ground it into a powder. Once properly mixed it was forced by pressure through three tubes and as it came out it was chopped into six-inch lengths by the workmen." (p. 5). When Lois married Gordon in 1937 the McEwan farm home was split into two parts and Lois got a proper cook stove in which they did not burn peat. In any case, the use of peat as a source of heat was weakening. By the late 1940s, according to the article in the Beacon Herald, " the demand for peat as a fuel had waned and the land was sold to the Upper Thames River Conservation Authority which has since reforested it." On the left is a picture from the Stratford Archives of peat harvesters in Ellice Township in the 1890's.

Lois' first set of dishes

Lois' first set of dishes was collected piece by piece from a gasoline promotional offered by Earl Tyler's Garage in St. Marys. Every time Bobby Hearn filled up his car at Tyler's garage, he was given one piece of china. In turn, that piece was given to Lois, and over many months, her collection grew to the point where there were enough dishes to serve as her first dinner set. The art deco pattern on the china evokes the sounds of the far east which may explain why this pattern is called Orient. These English dishes were produced in the Staffordshire factories of Alfred Meakins whose family began making china in the mid 1800's. Vast numbers of these dishes were exported to North America. While this pattern has been discontinued, it is still possible to see them in antique shops. Currently dinner plates of the Orient pattern are being offered for about 15$ on ebay. In England the same dish can be had for something closer to 5$. Lois' set was used for many years and gradually -- through breakage -- disappeared. All that remains is the dish pictured here and a small sugar bowl.

Our Orange Heritage

In an article entitled ‘Order and Respectibility’ The Glorious Twelfth in St.Marys, Richard Holt reviews the history of the Orange Order in Perth County and speculates on the social and political role which the Orange Lodge played in the community. The Orange Order is important in our family. Lois’ father Bob Hearn was a lifelong, ardent Orangeman. He never missed a twelfth of July parade. By the very fact of his membership in the organization Bob Hearn must have acknowledged and supported the strong pro-Protestant and anti-Catholic philosophy of the Orange Order. And yet, he and his family regularly socialized with their Catholic neighbours. Lois’ best friend was Mary Riley. There are pictures of the two families exchanging Sunday afternoon visits. In his article, Richard Holt suggests that this disconnect between the biased philosophy of the order, and the realty of the social and commercial world of Perth County was not atypical. The first Orange Lodge, LOL 518, was established in St. Marys in 1853, just 10 years after the first settlement. These first settlers were largely Protestant, with large groups of Ulster and Palatine Irish living on the west of the Thames River, and Scots and English settling on the east of the river. Interspersed among these Protestant groups were a few Catholic families, with larger concentrations of Catholics in Hibbert Township and in the Gore of Downie. As could be expected, some of the biases and historical feuds from the old country were transplanted into Perth County. The result was a strong sentiment in favour of the Orange Lodge in the St. Marys area. At the height of its power, there were seven LOL lodges in St. Marys, Downie, Blanshard and East Nissouri. On the 12th of July lodges throughout the county came together to parade in celebration of the Battle of the Boyne - "The Glorious Twelfth" - a small battle in which the forces of King William of England in 1690 defeated the Catholic Jacobites. These 12th of July marches were often followed by intemperate harangues provided by local clergy who railed against the evils of Jesuitism and exhorted the marchers to stand firm against the power of Catholicism. Over time, however, and faced with the broader realities of life in Ontario, Holt suggests that these sentiments gradually lost their meaning and, inevitably, they became empty rhetoric, a part of the tradition, but one which in itself, had little power or meaning. Like formalistic bedtime prayers, the rhetoric was repeated mindlessly and then forgotten. Gradually, the LOL lodges evolved into fraternal clubs for working class protestant men and women who came together for social outings and to be part of an organization with its rituals and ceremonies. Holt offers a couple of anecdotes to support his hypothesis. In the County parade of 1906, for example, John Walsh a wealthy Catholic store owner opened up his eleven acre property in Ardmore Park, to serve as the destination point for the Orange Parade. In a similar vein, Erma Keine a member of a Catholic family living in Perth County reminisced that all of the Catholic children in her area would go to watch the parade because they knew that Mr. Dunbar a neighbour and friend would be riding the white horse and carrying the open Bible in his role as King Billy. If it is true that the rhetoric did lose its meaning and it faded into irrelevancy, then that process may explain why John Walsh, a Catholic shopkeeper, could welcome the 12th of July marchers on to his property, why the parents of Erma Keine saw no problem in allowing her to watch the parade, and why Bob Hearn could attend a Orange Lodge meeting on one day and invite the Riley family to his home for a meal on the following day.

Bethesda Sunday School - Possible Origins

These two paragraphs from an article by Ryan Taylor likely explain how Bethesda Sunday School began at a crossroads in Downie Township.


"Because Methodism had evangelism as its base, there was a tradition of Circuit- riding missionaries through out the province. Small churches were established even in remote villages. Tiny country churches sprang up at crossroads without any houses around them. They served the farming community in the vicinity.

The farmers in a given area would be glad to have their own church nearby, however small it was. They might also find themselves in a disagreement with their neighbours or the local preacher on some theological point and begin a new congregation. The result was a proliferation of these little log cabin churches dotted on back concessions."

I don't know if this accounts for the Sunday School being established on a 1/4 acre lot on the SE corner of Lot 6 Concession 12 on land first settled by John Edwards in 1854. At his death in 1862 the lot was subdivided into 8 pieces for his children. A short time later in 1865 the Sunday School was built. Could there be a connection between John's death, the splitting up of the land, and the establishment of the Sunday School?
Methodist Church Records In Ontario
By: Ryan Taylor, Biography and Archived Articles

Bethesda Sunday School - Pt. 2

Bethseda Sunday School played multiple roles in the life of the community. It allowed individuals such as Mae Hearn to express her deep religious beliefs and it offered her an opportunity to impart those beliefs to her children. While the music and the lessons must have been a welcome diversion from the steady work of the week for the younger people, I am certain that the chance to meet and to socialize with other young people was especially welcome. On occasion the young people put on plays and Lois remembers Norman McCully whose family owned a large farm near the four-mile bush, and Percy Switzer whose family farm overlooked a wonderful sweep of land in the Trout Creek valley, acting in those plays. Often, Norman adlibbed his lines, much to the consternation of Percy whose obvious discomfort only added to the delight of the audience. In the 1930's Stella McLeod, who lived with her sister Lulu and her brothers Roy and Fred on land also overlooking the Trout Creek valley, began a girls' club. The club met monthly and it was the members of this club who did the spring cleaning of the Sunday School. I don't know of any pictures taken of the group, but possibly, this picture of the young women who attended Helen Laing's wedding includes members of the club. In this picture in the back row are Anna Dunbar, Mary Shrubsole (whose family lived at the bottom of hill in the Trout Creek Valley), Stella McLeod, Hazel Stewart who married a Kemp and whose grandmother was the midwife who attended the births of many children in the area, and Margaret Dunbar the sister of Anna. In the front row are Lois Hearn, Isobel Snoddy who married Ted Murray, Marie Ballantyne who married Earl Boyes, a man who figures prominently in this story, Annabel Aitcheson, and Mabel Tyler.

Bethesda Sunday School - An important social opportunity

In a post back in May, I talked of the Sunday afternoon tradition wherein Mae and her children walked up the road for the 2:30 service at the Bethesda Sunday School. That tiny Sunday School played an important role in the religious and social life of the community, a role even more convoluted in the lifes of the young people. Last weekend Lois and I visited the site of the original Sunday School and graveyard. As can be seen in this picture, the site is marked by a cairn and since the early 1970's the township has maintained the property. No one is sure what has happened to the tombstones. It is possible, at this time of year when the grass is dry, to trace the line of the original Sunday School foundation. While I didn't have a tape measure with me I paced out the line and estimated it as being about 21 x 27 feet: not much bigger than many suburban living rooms. In this picture you can almost see the line of the south-west wall of the original structure. The Sunday School sat near the road and behind a wire fence; to the south was the even smaller shed where Mr. Proudlove or Mrs. Vanstone, who shared the role of superintendent, sheltered their horses in winter. The graveyard, with the tombstones of the Iredales, Ellahs, Roadhouses and other families who first settled the area, was at the back of the property. I have one picture of the structure. In this picture of Annie Danard, Lois, and Bernice Evans (on the right) it can be seen that the building was a frame structure with a centre doorway flanked by windows. Inside, was a centre aisle, a stove in the middle, and pews on either side. Windows on both the north and south sides let in light. There were also brackets on the walls to hold the coal oil lamps. A small organ sat on the platform. Services followed a traditional pattern: first, a call to worship and a hymn. Mae Hearn played the piano for the hymns, and after she died, Lois took over the task. Lois now, rather sheepishly remembers that she often skipped notes as she played, and always had a comment to make to Mr. Proudlove when she went to the front to play the music. There were hymn books for the congregation. The hymn was followed by a prayer. Two people were in charge of passing the collection plates and Lois remembers her mother carefully giving each of her children a nickel for the collection plate. Then the members broke into groups for the Sunday School lesson. Lois' mother Mae always acted as a teacher for one of the classes. The class was followed by a second hymn and a prayer. By 4 o'clock the service was over. As they emerged from the building (fast forward to the 1930's) Lois and her friends would be hoping to see additional cars parked outside. One of the cars would likely belong to Gordon McEwan, and possibly a second car would belong to Roy Aitcheson who was going with Lois' good friend Helen Laing. Then, for those lucky girls who had boyfriends, it was a drive through the countryside, lots of talk and laughter and then home in time for supper and (in the case of the guys) barn chores. (On the next blog I will talk about the families who attended the Sunday School and the opportunity which the Sunday School provided for additional socializing.)

The Rings

Lois wears three rings on the second finger of her left hand. The first ring, the one with the three opals was given to Mae Rolston by Bob Hearn as an engagement ring sometime before they were married in 1910. Mae wore it all her married life, and after her death in 1933 the ring was given to Lois by her father. The second ring is Lois' engagement ring given to her in 1936 by Gordon. The tiny diamond in the ring is an accurate reflection of Gordon's financial situation as a young school teacher in rural Ontario during the Depression. On one particular occasion this ring caused a huge panic for Lois. It happened when she was working part-time at Douglas' Paint and Stationary Store in St. Marys. She was sorting cards when suddenly she noticed that the diamond was missing from her ring. The other clerks in the store all stopped what they were doing to search for the missing diamond which, in reality, is a diamond chip. Fortunately Hazel Fairbanks found the missing stone and Lois went immediately to Ross Andrew's Jewellery Store to have it reset. On seeing the ring the saleswoman suggested that Lois upgrade the setting to something of better quality. Lois refused, insisting that the ring be left as it was originally, stone chip, simple setting and all. The third ring with the ruby stone surrounded by diamonds was given to Lois in December 1977 by Gordon to commemorate their fortieth wedding anniversary.

Mrs. Tyler's Wedding Gift

Mrs. Tyler was one of Mae Hearn's best friends. She lived around the corner, north from #9 school. She was reputed to be a women who never stopped working. One of the many essential tasks of the farm housewife during the 1930's was to feed - abundantly and well - the men when they came in from the fields. Timing was essential in planning the meals. The hot food could not be taken off the stove until one caught sight of the men beginning to move in from the fields. While she waited by the window for the first sight of the men, Mrs. Tyler would stand and knit. Then, when the men appeared, she would put the knitting down and begin to transfer the hot food into bowls and on to the table. After Mae Hearn died, it was Mrs. Tyler that Lois turned to whenever she needed help with learning how to cook or can or to do any of the hundreds of other tasks which women performed. Here is the only picture we have of Mrs. Tyler. It was taken in 1920 at a St. Pauls Women's Institute meeting. With the white hair she looks much older than we would expect. Seventeen years later when Lois married Gordon, Mrs. Tyler gave Lois a quilt, every stitch of which Mrs. Tyler did herself. Now, 70 years later that quilt is displayed, preciously and never used, at the foot of the spool bed in the boys' room of Lois' house.